Rhode Island nonprofit organizations need improvement.
So says a recent report released by the Executive Service Corps of New England. Sponsored by the Rhode Island Foundation, United Way of Southeastern New England and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, the study found that 65 percent of the 250 participating area agencies were not satisfied with their completion of major initiatives.
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William Lavin, resource development director for Rhode Island Salvation Army agreed, saying for his organization that this is mostly the result of public perception.
“We’ve had a long standing nickel and dime process of fundraising, being the trusted name during the holiday season,” he said. “The problem with that is when we make a mail appeal people will give us ten dollars, when they might give a hundred dollars to an organization like the Red Cross, because of that perception of us as the holiday organization, yet we do the same sort of work.”
The study, dubbed “Toward Operational Excellence,” also found most non-profits thought they should increase their staffing and raise compensation levels, but were not necessarily in a position to do so.
Umberto Crenca is artistic director at Providence’s AS220, a community art space downtown. He said AS220’s compensation has improved drastically but it could be better. The seven adminstrative employees, including Crenca, have always been paid at the same rate, which up until two years ago was minimum wage. Since then they have been able to pay them all above the minimum wage scale, but at the same rate.
“We still get equal pay, which is the nature of our organization,” he said. “But we also provide health care.”
Red Cross Executive Director Barbara DeCesare said low wages make it difficult to retain employees.
“At the same time we’re struggling to make ends meet, we’re struggling to keep competent people here,” she said.
The study found that nonprofit workers suffer from a “cultural bias that says nonprofit people should be lower paid. That won’t fund staff and equipment.”
As far as equipment goes, many agencies said technological constraints may only worsen as technology progresses.
Jan Hall-Stinson, director of development for Travelers Aid said he fears nonprofits are going to be left behind.
“I think all nonprofits suffer from not having the most up to date technology, and over time that may be more of an issue,” she said. “More funding resources are doing applications online and we find out more about them online too. If you don’t have that kind of access it leaves you out of the loop.”
Crenca agreed, saying technology is a critical component of the way a business operates, and there is an undeniable lag-time before a nonprofit will be as technologically advanced as certain businesses in the private sector.
The issue that most people in the Executive Service Corps study seemed to be most outspoken about was collaboration. The study found participants calling for action in stepping up agencies’ collaboration and consolidation initiatives.
Crenca contended that AS220 does enough collaborating.
“We collaborate all the time,” he said. “If we stepped up our collaboration any more we’d implode. We now have to make choices about with whom we collaborate.”
AS220 works closely with Rhode Island Training School, Family Services, Turning the Corner, CityArts, and Youth in Action.
“I think it really is important that non-profits know who each other are and what they’re doing, but I think it’s extremely cumbersome to do this all the time,” he said.
DeCesare said collaborations have been a hallmark of her administration at Red Cross.
“We work with every agency with similar goals,” she said.
She said collaborations work better than similar groups competing for the same dollar. This way each group gets part of the funding.
Hall-Stinson said Travelers Aid collaborates with other agencies frequently but understands why some groups are reluctant or unable to do so.
“Collaborations take a while to put together,” she said, “but in the end they turn out to be a time-saver for everyone.”
Lavin said one of the successes in Salvation Army’s collaborations is that it keeps people from taking advantage of the nonprofits.
“Networking in general helps prevent duplication of services,” he said. “People become savvy of the systems and we try to make sure they don’t abuse them.”
Lavin said Salvation Army has had trouble in the past with people going from canned food drive to canned food drive and taking more than they need. Communication with other nonprofits alerts other groups to this problem.
“Those are the kinds of things where networking and collaborating are most beneficial to us,” said Lavin.
Charles Hutchinson, project director for the Toward Operational Excellence project said he would like to see more collaboration and consolidation within the nonprofit sector.
“It isn’t an easy thing to do, but there are a lot of reasons to consider it,” he said, “especially from a funding point of view and from an operational point of view.”
